Kay Solanki, Director of StartupWA, was invited to hold a group mentoring session for the current and past CORE Start cohorts.
CORE Start focuses on helping founders to efficiently scale and enact change through the ongoing development of emerging technology and innovation over 3 months. Australian startups in the Mining, Oil and Gas, Resources, Energy, Defence and Space industries may be eligible.
Kay's session addressed three 'Building Blocks of a Business', such are:
Business Structure: The importance of a written partnership agreement identifying the duties of responsibilities of the founding team members.
Funding options: Understand the available funding options such as revenue, family and friends, Angel investment, Venture Capital investment, Crowdfunding and Bootstrapping. Kay also highlighted the advantages of the R&D tax incentive.
Mentors and Advisory Board: The benefits of getting advice from external subject matters. Founders often have the misconception that they have to monetise mentors or advisory board members. However, there are many people who like to give back to young businesses and/or like to get experience at an advisory board level.
Photo: Kay Solanki (left) and Renu Kannu (right)